德保爾大學

Geographers examine the spatial relationships between people, places, environments and economies using innovative conceptual and technological approaches. Exciting technological changes, from computer mapping software like Google Earth, to satellite image processing, and global positioning systems (GPS), make geography a fascinating discipline to study. DePaul's geographers share a commitment to 'hands on' teaching and research that makes a world of difference for the people, places, environments and processes that we study. Geographers apply methods such as observation, visualization, analysis, and modelling to explain the spatial organization of human and physical environments. Geographical perspectives foster skills that have broad applications in public policy, research and the private sector. The Department of Geography teaches students to reason spatially by applying geographic techniques and information technologies, including new technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This helps students produce sophisticated understandings of the world, its people, environments, economic structures and cultures.

Geospatial analysis and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly-growing multi-billion dollar industry. Geotechnology was named by the U.S. Bureau of Labour as a “hot” area for job growth in both 2005 and 2010 and it is estimated that over the next ten years, demand for geospatial analysts will exceed supply as the geospatial technology industry grows to ten times the size of the video games industry. Geography holds a comparative advantage as a discipline that straddles fields in the social and natural science disciplines and, as a result, Geography has courses in every DePaul learning domain. This breadth of courses makes Geography the ideal double major at DePaul and the range of classes offered means that geography is an exceptional foundation for a variety of careers that explore questions of spatial organization and require regional knowledge.

Learning Outcomes

?Students will be able to:

• Use key concepts, theories, and vocabulary to interpret how socio-cultural, political, economic, and/or environmental phenomena may construct a "space," a "place," a "landscape," a "location," or a "region" as a complex material or symbolic structure.
• Use qualitative and/or quantitative methodologies to analyze spatial phenomena, and collect, identify, and apply spatial data from either primary or secondary sources to interpret the spatial character of a physical, socio-cultural, or environment-society problem.
• Interpret spatial patterns of economic inequalities and social injustices and their relation to urban, built, and natural environments.
• Demonstrate competence in one or more of several geospatial technologies (i.e. remote sensing, geographical information systems, global navigation satellite systems, etc.) and articulate effectively the results of that use in speech, text, image, or map.
• Describe and differentiate processes of globalization and their effects on cities, regions, physical systems, cultures, and political divisions.